The symphony, which has been called a tour de force for orchestra and will also include the Florida premiere of Kenneth Fuchs’ Canticle to the Sun, a concerto for French horn and orchestra, featuring SCSO standout, Juan Berrios.

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. Then his family moved to nearby Iglau (now Jihlava) where Mahler grew up.

As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.

Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honor the composer’s life and work.

The 7 p.m. show 7 p.m. show will be at the Scott Center for the Performing Arts at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy, 5625 Holy Trinity Drive in Melbourne.

Advance tickets are $20 for adults and available through the orchestra website at www.SpaceCoastSymphony.org or at several convenient ticket outlets, including Ace Hardware stores in Indialantic, Cocoa Beach and Satellite Beach, Blue Sky Insurance in Cocoa Village, Tropical Realty of Suntree, Art Expressions in downtown Eau Gallie, A Floral Affair in Merritt Island and Palm Bay Hearing Aid Center.